album review: 'black star elephant' by nico & vinz

So here's a fun challenge: name an African musical act. (Die Antwoord) Okay, now name one that actually has charted or has a hope in hell of charting in America. If you start looking through the Billboard charts, you'll find that that list is pretty damn small. Music from around the world already has limited representation on the American charts outside of Canada and the UK, and from Africa you can change the qualifier from 'limited' to 'barely any'.

And yet this year that changed with an act that burst onto the scene with eclectic instrumentation, a decidedly unique textured sound that was unlike anything else on the charts, and an uncanny knack for lodging itself in our subconscious. And of course, the act I'm talking about is KONGOS, a South African-based act that dropped their debut album in 2012 and it took well over a year and a half for their biggest hit 'Come With Me Now' to crash onto our charts, particularly in Canada where it broke the Top 10.

But I can bet that was not the act the majority of you were thinking about, was it? No, if you asked what music landed on the charts that had a decidedly 'African' vibe, you would have said Nico & Vinz and their song 'Am I Wrong'... and really, you'd have been half-right. Nico Sereba is Norwegian-Ivorian and Vincent Dery is Norwegian-Ghanaian, and it's clear that they draw much of their influences from African worldbeat music, but the song has more than a few hallmarks of their Norwegian synthpop background as well, which gives it a decidedly odd vibe from a production standpoint and a song that I've been trying to make sense of for months now. In other words, I had to know more, so I made it a priority to check out their first credited album as Nico & Vinz, Black Star Elephant. What did I find?

video review: 'you're dead!' by flying lotus

Man, this album was fun to talk about. May have gone a little overboard, but still worth a lot of consideration.

Next up... shit, I'm not sure. We'll see, so stay tuned!

album review: 'you're dead!' by flying lotus

I think if I remember 2014 for anything when it comes to my music criticism career, it'll be for two things. The first is turning me around on R&B - it was never really a genre I had embraced before, but with the rising tide of it in the mainstream and some genuinely great albums, I've come to appreciate it a lot more.

And the second would be my exploration of electronic music. I suspect to some extent this will continue to be an ongoing process, as I'm still working on getting a grip on how to write at length about acts that don't really use a lot of lyrics, but with every release, it's getting easier, especially when the acts have a knack for experimentation that can drive a lot of conversation.

Case in point, Flying Lotus, the stage name of L.A. producer Steven Ellison. His career originally kicked into motion with his second album Los Angeles in 2008, but his real success would come from the gleaming, eclectic, and generally pretty damn awesome Cosmogramma in 2010. And even coming from a guy who doesn't tend to love electronic music, that album gripped me immediately with its aggressively textured and detailed percussion, its masterful layered melodies on both synthesizers and classical instrumentation, and the off-kilter twists that suggested more than a passing influence of jazz fusion. Every listen revealed more fascinating twists that hid moments of genuine beauty in the details, not to mention some fantastic grooves that some artists would have elongated into entire songs alone. It's a genuinely thrilling album to listen through, and thus I'll admit I wasn't quite as gripped by his 2012 follow-up Until The Quiet Comes. It was a more restrained record, with more jazzy elements and more guests, but to me it lacked some of the flair, some of those transcendent and gorgeous moments that defined Cosmogramma so well. Plus, the more languid pace made some of the more grating moments drag on longer than they really should.

But all of that wasn't going to put me off checking out Flying Lotus' newest record, You're Dead! And at first glimpse, it looked like something of a different animal, swapping out vocals from Thom Yorke for verses from Kendrick Lamar and Snoop Dogg. So what happened here?

video review: 'paperwork' by t.i.

Eh, not as good as I was hoping, but still pretty solid and worth a few listens.

Next up... eh, not quite sure yet, so stay tuned!

album review: 'paperwork' by t.i.

You know, the more I think about it, the more I'm a little amazed how long T.I. has managed to sustain his clout even today.

Sure, in the very beginning he delivered some star-making records and proved instrumental in defining the trap scene in southern hip-hop, playing off a dual persona that proved to be a surprisingly versatile element in sustaining his career. It helped he had a lot of sleazy yet easy-going charisma and an adaptable, elastic flow that balanced off strong, hook-driven production. Sure, lyrically he could come across as a bit of an asshole, but he was the sort of character that produced such catchy, bombastic music that along with Ludacris he soon developed a tight grip on southern hip-hop.

But with the image and lifestyle came legal troubles, and T.I. was soon stuck in the position of trying to fix up his image. He dropped his most pop-friendly album ever with Paper Trail in 2008, which proved to be one of the biggest of his career but also was uneven in terms of solid quality. After a stint in jail, he came back with No Mercy, which despite some standout tracks was even more uneven in terms off quality. In retrospect, the problem seemed to be very simple: there wasn't a balance between T.I.'s personas, and whenever that balance got skewed, the albums worked less and less. 

So when T.I. came back near the end of 2012 with Trouble Man: Heavy Is The Head, it seemed like a welcome return to form. Most the production was back on point, T.I. sounded more invested in delivering quality wordplay than ever before, and he managed to wrangle together a cohesive sound. Sure, not all of the features turned out and his subject matter hadn't really evolved, but it's not like I was expecting that either. But instead of following up with that project with its planned sequels, T.I. looked to be even more ambitious and with his new album Paperwork proclaimed it'd be the beginning of a new trilogy. And look, as much as I liked Trouble Man - not better than King or Trap Muzik but it was still solid, I wasn't exactly enthused going into this release. Sure, I still hold that Paper Trail was a decent album, but did we really need a follow-up? And with singles like 'No Mediocre' where his protege Iggy Azalea was dropping more well-structured bars than T.I. was, I didn't know what to expect from the reportedly collaborator-swollen Paperwork Did we get something of quality, or a regression?

video review: 'plowing into the field of love' by iceage

And that makes two. And I'm barely conscious.

Next up will come after I sleep. Stay tuned!

video review: 'under pressure' by logic

I'm genuinely surprised that this album turned out as well as it did. Not that I had low expectations, but it came out in the best sort of way. Nice work.

Next up will be the Iceage video in a few hours, so stay tuned!

album review: 'plowing into the field of love' by iceage

Last year when I wrote about the excellent debut album from Savages Silence Yourself - an album that landed on my year-end list of the best albums of 2013 - I talked about my odd introduction into post-punk, which wasn't through an old music collection or friends or an angry white boy phase, but two scattered collections of punk songs, singles and deep cuts. Since then, I've had a much greater chance to delve into the subgenre over the past year in my spare time, partially through hanging out on the edges of the dwindling goth scene in Toronto and half through increasingly deep dives into obscure music that has never touched the charts and only gets acclaim on - you guessed it - sites like Pitchfork.

And this time we'll be talking about Iceage, a Danish punk/post-punk act that immediately became a critical darling upon the release of their first album New Brigade in 2011. And really, it's easy to see why - not only was every member of the band younger than me, they had a knack for hard-edged melodic grooves and extremely explosive drumwork that brushed against hardcore but then was tempered with gothic lyrics that weren't so much angsty but bringing a certain brand of visceral, descriptive bleakness that was unsettling in its own right. They followed that album a year later with the more personal and much meatier record You're Nothing, which took the gothic edge of their debut and honed it much finer, striking directly at human insecurities and everything people do to conceal them, not shying away from putting themselves directly in the line of the fire. It was their first record on Matador - the same label as Savages, unsurprisingly - and it was a natural fit. That being said, I've never been a huge fan of Iceage - I sure as hell respect them, but their occasional choice to sacrifice great melodic grooves for a tempo change or out of nowhere breakdown occasionally frustrated me. Yeah, I know they're a punk act, but when the songs they do write are so strong, breaking them apart in that way kind of irked me.

That said, I wasn't surprised when the critical acclaim started pouring in for their newest album Plowing Into The Field Of Love, so I made sure to give it several listens - how did it turn out?

album review: 'under pressure' by logic

Let's talk briefly about hip-hop magazines - I say briefly, because at this point, many of them are teetering on the point of irrelevance, especially in print. But the odd thing is that it didn't use to be like that at all - I can remember within the past ten to fifteen years when ratings from publications like XXL and The Source held influence and power and used to be the go-to for people to get hip-hop exclusive news. Hell, I remember Eminem's beef with former co-owner of The Source Benzino, where he wrote some of his most infamous diss tracks like 'Nail In The Coffin'.

But now? The Internet has blown the hip-hop conversation wide open, between established music criticism sites, blogs, and - of course - channels like yours truly. And what this means is that the 'old guard' has needed to do something to maintain a vestige of relevance and hip-hop 'cred' - and this takes us to XXL's Freshman List. Now if you're a hardcore hip-hop fan or if you have your ear to the ground, you likely consider the list a complete joke, a flailing attempt by XXL to get a handle on what new acts in hip-hop could break out and become mainstream success stories, to be the guys that called it first. But let's be honest here: I'm not really part of the readership of XXL, and for less-invested hip-hop fans, I can see a certain degree of value in the list, and it's almost always a solid signal boost for the artists in question. And while artists like A$AP Rocky have turned them down, I'm not too proud to admit that I've found MCs I might have otherwise missed that have managed to surprise me from this list.

So on that note, let's talk about one of them: Logic. He started releasing mixtapes in 2010 and built some pretty strong buzz, but he was one of those artists I've always had a bit of a hard time getting a grip on. Yes, he definitely has a solid flow and he's got good bars, but I had a hard time getting a grip on him on a unique rapper. His first Young Sinatra tape did a fair bit to show a lot of sides to his personality and some of his personal idiosyncrasies, but on following tapes he aimed to diversify his sound and draw more of a mainstream hip-hop audience and it didn't always feel as cohesive as an album whole with the more lyrical oldschool tracks. And while I didn't dislike his mixtapes, I always found them a little uneven in terms of content - although that was more of an issue with Undeniable than Welcome To Forever, which I did think was better better. But I figured, 'Hey, when he works to create a fully cohesive album', it'd probably have more cohesion or a more defined style', so I was very interested in his major label debut from Def Jam titled Under Pressure, especially considering the fact there was no credited features on the standard edition of the album - so how did it go?

video review: 'syro' by aphex twin

Well, this took a while to get done, and I can't imagine it'll go over without controversy, but I'm happy I finally got to it.

Next up is Iceage, so stay tuned!

album review: 'syro' by aphex twin

I've written in the past that it's hard to discuss legends. Especially legends that have come to shape so much of modern music to the point where some critics describe revisiting their old classics as 'vintage'. And for me personally, it's even harder when the genre is electronica, an musical genre that I'm only beginning to peel into in any significant way outside of specific offshoots like trance. To go back to the source is more than a little intimidating, especially if you have the uneasy feeling that a mob with pitchforks and torches will set you on fire if you don't throw out critical acclaim.

So on that oh-so-comforting note... Aphex Twin. The stage name of the man with three first names Richard David James who used the Aphex Twin name among several others, his first release was a compilation of ambient mixes he had recorded from '85 to '92 - and surprise surprise, it's excellent. Even though on that album you can hear the sounds that would come to dominate so much of modern music, Aphex Twin had the twin advantages of good melody and even better texture, taking sounds that might be considered 'vintage' now and still crafting memorable and potent songs. And yet with Selected Ambient Works Volume II, some of that texture evaporated into a set of sparse, underweight and underwritten melodies that lacked presence even for ambient music and went on a good ninety minutes longer than they should have, even though it did get a fair bit better in its second half. Fortunately, that texture came back for 1995's ...I Care Because You Do and especially for the spiky yet beautifully melodic 1996 Richard D. James Album, a record that even today has a decidedly unique sound with the blend of strings, slightly off-kilter synth tones, and drill-like percussion, and has held up incredibly well. 

Then came 2001's Drukqs... and here's the thing, I'd argue about half of that double album works incredibly well - experimental, drill & bass inspired production that holds up as innovative even today, and there are some phenomenal melodies that are utilized across that record that I really love. But there are also more tracks that go on longer than they should and the harpsichord interludes really did wear out some of their welcome. And from there, James decided to take a long break from using the Aphex Twin moniker until a Kickstarter campaign to reclaim the old, unreleased record Caustic Window from a record collector showed a great deal of popular interest still in his work. And to some extent that catalyzing incident is important, and was indicative of what might be on the record - we probably weren't going to be getting the insane, eclectic experimentation, but a piece that was sure to be a crowdpleaser for long-time Aphex Twin fans. Did we get that?

video review: 'blood moon: year of the wolf' by the game

Well, that was interesting. Not exactly good, but interesting at least.

Next up... you know, I think I'm about ready to talk about Aphex Twin or Iceage, so stay tuned!

album review: 'blood moon: year of the wolf' by the game

I haven't thought about The Game as a rapper in... damn, probably three years now, when I wrote a review of The R.E.D. Album back when I was doing these reviews on Facebook. It's been a long three years, so let's catch up, shall we?

So, The Game. West Coast MC, gangsta rapper with a solid flow and some occasionally offbeat lyrics that allowed him to stand out in the crowded mid-2000s. He struck it big with two legitimately great albums in 2005 and 2006, mostly thanks to extremely solid, hook-driven production and an embarrassment of collaborating artists. In fact, if we're to consider The Game's career as a whole, one of his most distinguishing factors is his networking abilities and his Master P-inspired tendency to overload his records with guest stars - which hasn't always been the best of choices, because he frequently mishandles them or allows them to blow him off the stage, which started early with Eminem on The Documentary and has continued to happen whenever Kendrick Lamar or Common are invited on the record.

But as the 2000s continued, The Game hit a serious rough patch. Between criminal charges, he released LAX in 2008 and the disastrously troubled The R.E.D. Album in 2011, the latter of which was a mess of epic proportions that only seemed to highlight The Game's inconsistencies in not only his own rhymes, but in his guest stars and his production. Thankfully, he managed to pull some consistency back together for Jesus Piece in 2012, but as an album trying to explore the dichotomy between being religious and still being a gangsta, it felt lightweight on actually reaching solid points. Because here's the thing: there's a reason I haven't really thought about The Game in three years, and that he's never really stood out to me as a rapper beyond a few great songs, some solid production, and his knack for calling everyone under the sun to guest on his records.

So until I got a request for it, I had no idea The Game was dropping a new album this year, and honestly, I had no idea what to expect from Blood Moon: Year Of The Wolf. I mean, there was no Kendrick Lamar verse to look forward to, but Freddie Gibbs was on the back half of the album, and surely that'd make up for the contributions from Chris Brown, Tyga, French Montana, 2 Chainz and Soulja Boy, right?

video review: 'anything goes' by florida georgia line

Well, it could have been worse.

Okay, next up... honestly, I have no clue. Whatever it is, it'll probably be interesting, so stay tuned!

album review: 'anything goes' by florida georgia line

The time has come.

I've been asked a number of times to weigh in one of the most 'iconic' duo in the short history of bro-country, the act most instantaneously recognizable by so many people as the main 'faces' of the genre. A duo that is responsible for the longest running #1 single on the country charts of all time, the instantly recognizable, mind-bogglingly stupid single 'Cruise'. And with the massive success of the remix of that song with Nelly, they managed to propel bro-country into the mainstream and have become singlehandedly responsible for how most of my generation perceives country music. Yep, the duo is Florida Georgia Line, loved by casual and bro-country fans and detested by pretty much everyone else, and as the only country critic on YouTube, my verdict IS...

Eh, they're not bad. I've made the statement in the past that bro-country in and of itself isn't a bad thing, and there are gradations of quality within the subgenre. You get acts that do it well, and acts that screw it up, and unsurprisingly for being the biggest name in the format, Florida Georgia Line fall somewhere in the middle. Believe it or not, I didn't hate 'Cruise' when it first debuted and I still don't hate it, mostly because it's too blissfully moronic to hate. You don't always need intelligence to make good pop or country music, and 'Cruise' kind of worked for what it was. See, Florida Georgia Line had two big advantages in their favour: a ton of enthusiasm, and a certain amount of authenticity. They weren't exactly polished or had a lot of dignity, but you could tell they believed what they were selling and didn't really come across as obnoxious. That's why the remix of 'Cruise' and the Luke Bryan collaboration 'This Is How We Roll' left something of a sour taste in my mouth - they stripped away the country twang and replaced it with stiff drum machines and egregious Autotune, and while the original melodic structure of the songs held up, they lost a lot of flavour. Plus, nobody wants to hear Florida Georgia Line rap - ever.

But that was last year, and you better believe I was curious to see how Florida Georgia Line would be able to translate the narrow shelf-life of bro-country into something that'd be able to last beyond the trend. And at first glimpse, it looked like the band would be able to pull it off, because the lead-off single 'Dirt' looked like it was going in a very different direction. But then I started to hear interviews from Scott Borchetta, head of Big Machine and affiliated with Republic Nashville, Florida Georgia Line's label, that his comments surrounding the necessity for country to diversify was directed at everyone except Florida Georgia Line. The duo seemed to be getting a free pass to pump out more of the same, and thus I didn't know what to expect with their newest album Anything Goes - so what happened?

video review: 'sweet talker' by jessie j

Ugh, I wanted this to be better too. It's what happens when your label rushes things, though, so I'm not precisely surprised.

Okay, that Florida Georgia Line album has been in my sights for a while... stay tuned!

album review: 'sweet talker' by jessie j

"This critic would like to begin this review with an acknowledgement that yes, he misinterpreted the song 'I Miss Her' on Jessie J's last record. It is not a song about a troubled same-sex relationship, but instead was about a family member suffering from a mental illness similar to dementia. No, he does not have the slightest idea how he could have messed that up, and he is very grateful to the many, MANY comments that felt the need to correct him on it. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming..."

I honestly wish Jessie J was more famous than she is, at least on this side of the Atlantic. By now she's built an impressive stable of hit singles, most of which I've liked, and yet there's a considerable number of music critics who brand her as a Katy Perry wannabe, especially early on. And to me, it's been interesting to watch their careers in parallel on the changing landscape of the pop charts. Because let's be blunt, as the charts have shifted to more R&B than pop, it has not been a great year for Katy Perry, with 'Dark Horse', her worst single from Prism being the best performer mostly thanks to crossover airplay thanks to Juicy J's awful guest verse. Because in comparison to the arsenal of singles from Teenage Dream, 'Unconditionally', 'Birthday', and 'This Is How We Do' have not really been smash hits, both critically or commercially.

But if anything, Jessie J has fared even worse. I thought Alive was a pretty decent album when I reviewed it last year, with good songwriting and performances but hampered by a lack of focus in instrumentation and production and some really sloppy guest appearances. But I'll be blunt, that record did nothing in North America, with most of the singles and chart success coming in the UK - and there's a reason for that, as the American version of the record was never released. Instead, a new album of material was thrown together in record time, featuring Jessie J's least number of writing credits to date. Now for me, that was grounds for a lot of concern - Jessie J's songwriting was one of the things I liked the most about Alive, and to see even more hands in the process for Sweet Talker was not exactly encouraging. But considering the shared opening single 'Bang Bang' with Ariana Grande has proven to be one of the strongest pop singles of the year, I figured it couldn't be that bad, right?

video review: 'aquarius' by tinashe

Man, this was an underwhelming record. Really should have been better, I have to say.

Okay, hopefully I can get the Jessie J video up tonight, so stay tuned!

album review: 'aquarius' by tinashe

If any of you remember my reviews from 2013, particularly any where I talked about R&B, I may have mentioned that I didn't tend to be a huge fan of the genre, mostly tied to underwritten lyrics, songwriting topics that didn't really evolve, and - particularly in modern years - a brand of synthetic production that was really bleaker than the subject matter could support. 

Well, this year seems to have been doing its best to crush my predilections towards the genre into rubble, because not only is R&B bigger than ever this year, there have been some genuinely great records in this vein. I've only warmed more to the FKA Twigs debut since I reviewed it, and Jhene Aiko's Souled Out is still one of my favourite albums of the year, mostly for proving all my preconceptions surrounding R&B nearly completely wrong in terms of songwriting, themes, and instrumentation. And considering that R&B - particularly female-fronted R&B, and especially the stuff drawing inspiration from the indie scene - has only gotten bigger this year, I figured that keeping my eye on the artists who actually land chart success could prove very interesting.

And sure enough, I started getting requests to cover Tinashe, a California-based R&B singer who I most recognized from - and I can't believe I'm going to mention this - Two And A Half Men, where she played Jake's girlfriend Celeste. Originally a member of the girl group The Stunners, she began making mixtapes from her home studio, which eventually caught the serious attention of RCA Records who signed her and overloaded her with the biggest producers in mainstream R&B and hip-hop. And with an album full of interludes and guest appearances, it looked to have a fair bit of ambition behind it too, so I gave it a couple listens - what did I find?

video review: 'hozier' by hozier

Wow, I did not expect this album to be this good. Seriously, get it, it's fucking amazing.

Okay, Tinashe is probably next, but I've got Iceage and Aphex Twin (finally) to cover too, so stay tuned!